Flusterstorm is basically the entire reason. Flusterstorm isn't free, but it's so much better as both a defensive and offensive tool when you have the mana that Misdirection is rendered largely unneeded. Even back on the day, the only deck that really played Misdirection was Oath, since you didn't have a huge startup cost in cards, and resolving Oath did actually end the game.

Mental Misstep lets you counter Ancestral Recall for free on the draw, which was one of Misdirection’s huge reasons for being included in decks. If we ever see a restriction of Mental Misstep you’ll see Misdirection return. Flusterstorm is also a huge reason (as stated above), but Misdirection’s role has always been Blue vs. Blue interaction when mana was rough, and Mental Misstep is much less potential card disadvantage.

There are just fewer things to target in general. If you are in a Xerox v Xeros match up Misdirection costs you 2 cards for a new target.

If you are playing against a non-blue deck this card is awful.

It does very little against Paradoxical Outcome and next to nothing against Oath or Big Blue decks. The combination of Preordain, Mental Misstep and Delve spells have made the cards value marginal at best.

If discard was still a thing then this card would have more value but even legacy where discard is a thing this card is marginal at best for most of the reasons already listed.

But even as recent as 2015 when both Mental Misstep and Flusterstorm were both legal it was still being used in multiple top 32 decks of the Vintage NA EW. It seems to have dropped completely off the map right after. All the reasons stated above make sense, but how come it was still being used so recently (in vintage time)?

But even as recent as 2015 when both Mental Misstep and Flusterstorm were both legal it was still being used in multiple top 32 decks of the Vintage NA EW. It seems to have dropped completely off the map right after. All the reasons stated above make sense, but how come it was still being used so recently (in vintage time)?

People are slow to adapt, and in a format where Vintage where the other 59 can carry you so hard, it sometimes doesn't matter. I think Misdirection might even still have a place in Oath of Druids if we go back to Abrupt Decay being the tool du jour to fight Oath, but short off that, the combo decks are too critical mass-y and the control decks too good at casting Misstep, Flusterstorm and Reb for Misdirection to matter too much.

@rat3de So, Khans was released in Sept 2014, that's when Treasure Cruise broke everything. Dig Through Time was unrestricted in 2015 so Oath was abusing it as was Omniscience in legacy so Misdirection was a good protection spell. After the restrictions of both Delve spells, turbo Xerox took over with 4 Monastery Mentor and they ran the 4 Mental Misstep and 2 Flusterstorm with 4 FOW package that we have now.

Misdirection was just out gunned when Turbo Xerox came into play and Shops went to a faster build to compete and that gets us to where we are now. Add Paradoxical Outcome to the mix and Misdirection just does not do enough to earn a slot anymore.

Stealing an Ancestral is less important than it used to be too. We have PO now and every deck plays some way of making sure their Ancestral resolves. Its not realistic to steal one, its not as worth it to steal one.

MD was regularly played as fows 5-6 against Mana Drian Decks in the PitchLong era. Other decks used to play 1 or 2 copies of MD too against Drain stack battles.

Last time I played it was in Fenton Oath several years ago, but was gold for me all day. You need to play with 4 MM now though, in order to protect it from Pyros.

I would really like to have it come back to the format. People tend to launch AR to unconsciously these days with just MM backup XD. A MD and a MM can really ruin an enjoyable day of Vintage Magic if you play that happily!

I've used Misdirection in various decks over the last year and a half. I had the most success with it in Oath, and some with Xerox. I do not think that Xerox wants this card at all. Oath could probably play one, but the metagame would probably need to be rather blue with even Survival being the blue version. Otherwise, the card is far too narrow. Even when I do include it in the deck, I can go entire leagues without using it once. I either do not draw it, or I draw it after it would have mattered.